A high altitude recipe for soft and chewy almond paste cookies, made with almond flour in the cookie dough, almond paste filling, and sliced almonds sprinkled on top. These cookies are wonderful any time of year, but with the flavors of almond and cardamom, they make a wonderful holiday cookie, too.
You might also love these recipes for classic almond shortbread cookies, almond biscotti, and almond cutout Christmas cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Quick and Easy. You’ll love the simple steps for mixing up the dough with just a bowl and whisk, no mixer needed. And the cookies only need a brief chill time before they’re ready to bake.
So Much Almond Flavor. While there’s no almond extract in today’s recipe, these almond paste cookies are full of almond flavor, between the almond flour, almond paste and sliced almonds.
Perfect for the Holidays. I love almond baked goods for Christmas, and I currently have a few of these saved in my freezer to add to my own Christmas cookie box this winter.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Butter. Use unsalted butter, or reduce the added salt in the recipe.
- Sugar. A combination of granulated sugar and light brown sugar adds sweetness and moisture.
- Vanilla Extract + Cardamom. Adds flavor to complement the almonds.
- Egg. Adds moisture and strength to the cookies so they aren’t crumbly.
- Golden Syrup. The golden syrup helps to contribute to a chewier texture, so it’s a nice addition if you have it on hand. It can also be swapped with other syrups with a similar consistency, such as light corn syrup. You can usually find golden syrup at international food stores like World Market, as well as on Amazon.
- Flour. You’ll need both all purpose flour as well as almond flour.
- Corn Starch. Helps to tenderize the cookies for a soft texture.
- Baking Soda. Leavening agent, so the cookies spread and puff as they bake.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Almond Paste. The almond paste filling inside the cookies is a delicious surprise, and gives them a thick, puffy shape.
- Sliced Almonds.
Instructions
Make the Dough
- In a bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, egg and golden syrup, until smooth.
- Separately, combine the flour, almond flour, corn starch, baking soda, salt and cardamom. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir everything together with a spatula, until you have a soft dough.
Shape the Cookies
- Use a medium cookie scoop to portion the dough into 20 equal portions.
- Divide the almond paste into 20 equal portions. You can do this by simply cutting the block of almond paste into 4ths, then cutting each chunk into 5 smaller pieces. Roll the pieces of almond paste into balls, then flatten into disks.
- Take a ball of cookie dough, flatten it in your hands, and press an almond paste disk into the center. Wrap the dough around the almond paste so it’s enclosed, and slightly flatten the cookie into a disk. Repeat with the remainder of the dough and almond paste.
- Now brush the top of the cookies lightly with egg white, then press them into the sliced almonds. The egg white will help the sliced almonds to stick to the cookies.
- Refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes while you preheat the oven.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and place the chilled cookies several inches apart on the baking sheet. Keep the rest of the unbaked cookies refrigerated until ready to bake.
- Bake for about 10-11 minutes, until the edges are set and golden brown and the cookies are puffed.
- Cool for several minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
While I haven’t tested it without the filling, there’s no reason it wouldn’t work. Expect the cookies to be a little flatter and not quite so puffy, if you leave out the filling.
The golden syrup helps to contribute to a chewier texture, so it’s a nice addition if you have it on hand. It can also be swapped with other syrups with a similar consistency, such as light corn syrup. You can usually find golden syrup at international food stores like World Market, as well as on Amazon. If you don’t have any, you can likely leave it out, but I’d suggest also reducing the flour by 1/4 cup.
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High Altitude Almond Paste Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup almond flour
- 1 ½ tsp corn starch
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 8 oz almond paste
- 1 egg white
- ½ cup sliced almonds
Instructions
Make the Dough
- In a bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, egg and golden syrup, until smooth.
- Separately, combine the flour, almond flour, corn starch, baking soda, salt and cardamom. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir everything together with a spatula, until you have a soft dough.
Shape the Cookies
- Use a medium cookie scoop to portion the dough into 20 equal portions.
- Divide the almond paste into 20 equal portions. You can do this by simply cutting the block of almond paste into 4ths, then cutting each chunk into 5 smaller pieces. Roll the pieces of almond paste into balls, then flatten into disks.
- Take a ball of cookie dough, flatten it in your hands, and press an almond paste disk into the center. Wrap the dough around the almond paste so it's enclosed, and slightly flatten the cookie into a disk. Repeat with the remainder of the dough and almond paste.
- Now brush the top of the cookies lightly with egg white, then press them into the sliced almonds. The egg white will help the sliced almonds to stick to the cookies.
- Refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes while you preheat the oven.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and place the chilled cookies several inches apart on the baking sheet. Keep the rest of the unbaked cookies refrigerated until ready to bake.
- Bake for about 10-11 minutes, until the edges are set and golden brown and the cookies are puffed.
- Cool for several minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Hi Heather! I live in Littleton and have been admiring your works of art for some time now. I showed my husband pic of almond cookies and he was bugging me about making them. They are wonderful! Nice consistency and not too sweet. Used light corn syrup in place of golden.
Your food photography is absolutely beautiful, the best. Thank you for this keeper recipe!
I had to order the golden syrup and almond paste from Amazon, and these cookies were worth the specialty ingredients. My husband is going to LOVE these!